Enter keywords or a search phrase below:
I've always liked the looks of this bird, and your build really captures it nicely. Well done!
Mike
"We have our own ammunition. It's filled with paint. When we fire it, it makes pretty pictures....scares the hell outta people."
In the times of the Big One when the Spam Hit The Fan, F-111's weren't expected to make but a one way trip...in to deliver their little firecracker on the target. A Mach+ dash into enemy territory at low level would leave little fuel for a return. If and its a BIG IF there were tankers available on the escape route maybe. But tankers had but one mission themselves...give the bombers all the fuel they had so they could get to the target. Which meant the tankers would be heading to their recovery base or as close to it as they could.
When I was stationed at our KC's were to meet their charges over to refuel them. Once done, the life expectancy for plane and crew was
Gerald "Hawkeye" Voigt
http://hawkeyes-squawkbox.com/
"Its not the workbench that makes the model, it is the modeler at the workbench."
Impressive build!!
The extra tanks would be carried in order to achive intercontinental ranges (Like to drop a nuke on those bad boys over in the former U.S.S.R.) The idea was that the FB-111A would suplement our fleet of B-52's as a stand off deterent The FB version was "optimized" for the delivery of nuclear weapons. The outher wing pylons do not swivel like the inner ones and are rigid at 26 degrees. They would no doubt be used up and discarded for the first leg of the journey I would imagine and then discarded. The plane can not reach Mach speeds with those outer pylons and tanks attached and must be disposed of also if wings are to be swept past the 26 degree mark.
As to the kit, it is a 1/72 scale Hasegawa FB-111A I bought many years ago and only partially completed, as I said. I have read a couple of reviews calling it Hasegawa's best kit ever-but that is the opinion of the individual reviewers. The kits available at the time were this one, F-111A, F-111C ( Aussie version) F-111D/F (I have-it's going to be an 'F' with TAC markings) EF-111A Raven (I have this as well). Don't recall if there was an "E" version released or not.
Thanks for you comments!
*******
On my workbench now:
It's all about classic cars now!
Why can't I find the "Any" key on my keyboard?
echolmberg Great looking kit, Jimbot! Who's the manufacturer? And why on earth would the designers cant the outboard pylons/tank inward like that??? Eric
Great looking kit, Jimbot! Who's the manufacturer? And why on earth would the designers cant the outboard pylons/tank inward like that???
Eric
It appears to be the Hasegawa FB-111 1/72 scale and the outboard pylons are canted that way as they are unmovable and when the wings are swept the tank will fit under the tail.
On the workbench: Dragon 1/350 scale Ticonderoga class USS BunkerHill 1/720 scale Italeri USS Harry S. Truman 1/72 scale Encore Yak-6
The 71st Tactical Fighter Squadron the only Squadron to get an Air to Air kill and an Air to Ground kill in the same week with only a F-15 http://photobucket.com/albums/v332/Mikeym_us/
Nice Build. Thanks for sharing.
Regards, Rick
Nicely done. Looks like all those years paid off.
Hey Jim,
She came up very nicely. Your camo work is superb.
Don't sweat the 15 years, mine's still in the box and I've had it longer than that.
Nice work on the SAC "Vark". I guess that he is planning on a long flight in the near future????
Darwin, O.F.
,,
The B-52 and me, we have grown old, gray and overweight together.
Nicely done Jimbolt, looks good frome here...Well done that reminds me to do one myself one of these days...
This kit is the one I said sat Idle for over 15 years, and finally it got its wings cemented in place and drop tanks painted and installed. As always, I must apologize for my lack of a decent camera and also the chaos that is my work desk.
You can see those outer tanks on the stationary pylons canted inward a bit as they do not swivel and are set at around 26 degrees and the wings fully swept forward are at about 20 degrees. They must be jettisoned if the wings sweep back any further and are limited to subsonic speeds.
I think the settings on my phone camera were set too low as I usually get larger pictures. I'll try again later.
(Santa, if you are reading this, I could use a decent camera...Hello? Santa?
Our community is FREE to join. To participate you must either login or register for an account.